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Indiana Iborttcultutal Society 
Infcianapolis, Hnt>» 



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in 2010 with funding from 
The Library of Congress 



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A MONOGRAPH 



ON 



FRUIT CULTURE 



IN INDIANA 



Its Present Condition and Its Possibilities. 



MRS. WARDER W. STEVENS. 



PUBLISHED BY THE 

INDIANA HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 

1904. 



S^5- 



MAY 19 W9 



INTRODUCTORY. 



Dear Reader: — Do you have any desire to go into the growing of 
fruit — of owning a good fruit farm ? Then why not locate where you and 
your family can have all the comforts, conveniences and advantages of 
modern country life — good (near) neighbors, good churches, good schools, 
good roads, good markets, unequaled shipping and traveling facilities, 
free mail delivery at your door, cheap and efficient telephone service in 
the home, electric cars along many principal highways giving hourly ser- 
vice, etc., with pure air, water and healthy climate? If so, read very 
carefully the following facts concerning the advantages of Indiana as a 
place to engage in fruit growing. 

Why go into a new territory where you and your family will have to 
deprive yourselves of many advantages, endure many hardships and wait 
many long years before you are comfortably fixed ? 

Here, in Indiana, in the midst of all the advantages that modern life 
can give, you can buy a farm, equally productive, with the same or less 
outlay, and secure all these advantages at once. Consider well and make 
no mistake. 

The Indiana Horticultural Society will be pleased to give any fur- 
ther particulars to those interested. Address 

W. B. FLICK, Secretary, 

Lawrence, Indiana. 



FRUIT CULTURE IN INDIANA 



In writing on the natural resources of Indiana let it be understood 
that but few States of the Union have a greater diversity of soil or 
can produce more of the necessaries of life than she can. Gold can be 
found in paying quantities within her borders, pearls are found in her 
waters, and diamonds are no doubt to be found within her bounds. 
But it is to none of these things that we write to call the attention of 
the world in this article, but to our wonderful horticultural resources. 
It is to orchard, vineyard and berry plantation that Indiana will point 
with pride, and to which she will be indebted for future greatness. 
Here we have everything to tempt the capitalist, seeking profitable 
investments, the home seeker, or the laboring man who must eat bread 
by the sweat of his brow. Lands in abundance can be bought cheap, 
that will produce as fine fruits as the sun ever shone on, and all they 
need to make them yield gold is for the "alchemist," Capital, to take 
hold and develop them. Our State is divided into ninety-two counties, 
every one of which will bring some kinds of fruits to perfection, while 
many of them produce profitably auy variety that can be grown within 
the temperate zone, but there are counties or sections of the State 
where certain kinds of fruits grow 7 to a higher state of perfection and 
can be produced more profitably. Until a few years ago the northern 
and central portion of Indiana were supposed to be far superior to the 
southern portion as a place in which to invest money in farm lands 

7 



with hope of remunerative return. This is true now only in part. If 
corn and wheat lands are the desired ones, then central, northern and 
western counties are possibly best even yet, but for fruits they are not. 
In the first place the lands are worth too much for constant tillage in 
cereal crops, the climate and soil are not well suited, and then market 
facilities are but little better than in the extreme south part of the 
State, To repeat, there are but few counties in the State where fruit 
can not be profitably grown, yet we will hereafter confine ourselves to 
those particular counties where soil, location, climate, elevation and 
every necessary feature is combined to make them especially adapted 
to commercial fruit growing. Here and there over the State is a county 
or section that is well adapted from some local peculiarity of topog- 
raphy or other influence to fruit growing of some particular kinds. 
These we will mention, but not as belonging within the fruit belt. 

Indiana is centrally located in what is known as the great Ohio 
Valley, extending from Lake Michigan on the north to the Ohio river 
on the south, and between seven degrees and forty-five minutes and 
eleven degrees and one minute of longitude east from the city of 
Washington. It contains an area of 33,809 square miles. From the 
geologist's standpoint this State has a wonderful history. First, the 
southeastern portion appeared, then the northwestern and lastly the 
central. Then drifting from- the north came vast glaciers, hundreds of 
feet in thickness, composed of ice, earth and stone, crushing and grind- 
ing the whole face of the earth, leveling the hills and filling the val- 
leys. These glaciers extended some forty miles below the center of 
the State, the hills and ravines of the lower portion remaining un- 
changed. The dissolving glaciers and subsidence of water left in the 
State three groups of soils, viz. : the drift, the alluvial and the residual. 
The drift soils, covering an area of about two-thirds of the State, were 
formed by the grinding and leveling action of glaciers, thus mixing 
together in one hetrogeneous mass earth, clay, gravel, sand and stone. 
The soils thus formed are rich in all the mineral elements of fertility 



that make lands valuable for agricultural purposes. This rich supply 
of mineral elements is not confined to the surface loam, but extends 
down to the rock bed, and are consequently practically inexhaustible. 

The alluvial soils are found along creeks and rivers, usually called 
"bottom lands." The rain and the snows, which give an annual water 
supply of about 44 inches, start up the trickling rills, the brooks, rivers 
and strong streams which are ever at work tearing down the soils and 
underlying clays, and disintegrating the very rocks from every slope, 
bearing them away to lower levels. The small water-formed drains of 
to-day in years become a chasm, and in ages a hollow, and the trans- 
formed material is gradually deposited as alluvial soil on overflow 
lands. Here are found the most productive corn lands under the sun, 
and centuries of cultivation will not exhaust their fertility. 

' The residual soils are found in the south part of the State. They 
were chiefly derived from the underlying rocks, limestone, sandstone 
and shale, and their fertility varies in passing from one formation to 
another. All the hills and valleys as now found were literally cut out 
of what was once a level stretch of land, by the weathering of rocks 
and the wash of streams and rains. 

The blue limestone of the southeastern counties gives a porous clay 
soil of light color, rich in lime and much more productive than its 
appearance would indicate. Farther west and extending past the cen- 
ter of the State there are outcroppings of huge beds of shale which 
gives a cold, tenacious clay soil. The sandstone of the knobs that 
run back from the Ohio river and extending some sixty miles up 
through the State gives a light, sandy soil. Then there is a long 
stretch of subcarboniferous or oolitic limestone country, extending 
from the Ohio river a short distance from the falls in a northwesterly 
direction for one hundred fifty miles, which gives a very fertile 
soil, capable of producing the widest range of plant growth, but much 
of this area is too broken and rocky for practical cultivation. These 

9 



residual soils all respond to a liberal application of commercial fertil- 
izer, but the fertility is most economically maintained by systematic 
green manuring. 

In many parts of the State there are found considerable districts 
where the surface is formed by local deposits, evidently more recent 
than the glacier drift. Of these there is the terrace or second bottom 
formation which skirts the larger streams, frequently attaining a 
width of four or five miles. Below a surface loam of two or three feet 
in depth the formation is of water-worn pebbles, interspersed with 
coarse sand showing very distinct ripple marks and lines of deposits 
from running water. The northern counties of the State often present 
ridges of nearly pure sand which overlie the glacier or boulder drift 
and are, therefore, regarded as more recent. 

The rocks underlying all these superficial deposits have been very 
slightly disturbed since their original deposition in horizontal strata. 
Their general dip is westward. Along the southern border of the State 
the dip amounts to about thirty feet per mile. Through the center of 
the State the dip is a little south of west, with a descent of about 
twenty feet per mile, and as the northern counties are approached the 
dip is less and more southerly. 

This is a brief outline of the geology, topography and soils of In- 
diana, and at least one-third Of its entire area is peculiarly and espe- 
cially adapted to commercial fruit culture. 

CLIMATE. 

Indiana lies at an altitude ranging from 350 to 950 feet above tide 
water. In the absence of any large bodies of water or lofty mountains 
to exert local influence in climatic modification, Indiana may be taken 
as the type of a climate of latitude. Lake Michigan touches one corner 
of the State, and no doubt affects somewhat the climate of a few coun- 
ties in its vicinity. It is also true that an elevation of 800 feet is equal 

10 



to a slight remove of latitude to the north, but these affect the climate 
in a very mild degree. 

The extreme southern point of the State reaches a little below the 
thirty-ninth parallel of north latitude, while the northern line does not 
quite touch the forty-second parallel. This location secures exemption 
alike from the Arctic severity of the New England winters and the 
enervating summer heat of the Gulf States. The most objectionable 
feature of the winter climate of Indiana is its oscillating between these 
extremes. In the winter months the thermometer frequently marks a 
temperature above sixty degrees, while scarcely a winter passes with- 
out its reaching zero, and sometimes even twenty below that point. 
These extreme cold waves, however, are quite rare. The summer 
climate is almost tropical, the mercury frequently ranging from 95 to 
98 in the shade and seldom falls below 60. The prevailing winds modify 
to a great extent climatic conditions and tend to greatly diversify the 
seasons, comparing one year with another. The "cold waves" come 
when the wind is between west and northwest. The north winds are 
tempered by the great bodies of unfrozen water of the lakes and bring 
in their wake heavy rains and sleets, but the heavy snows of this region 
are brought by northeasterly winds. 

The position which Indiana occupies on the line of interchange of 
winds between the Gulf of Mexico and the great lakes secures the 
climate from the serious drouths that so frequently affect countries 
far from the seaboard. The wind from the Gulf comes unobstructed 
by mountain chain, and in the summer season meets with no cold sur- 
face to condense its moisture till it reaches Lake Michigan, whose 
wafers maintain a temperature of GO degrees throughout the summer. 
Under this influence condensation begins, and rapidly extends south- 
ward. DuriEg the summer a brisk southerly wind usually brings rain 
within twenty-four hours, but the heavy, continuous rains come from 
the east and southeast. March usually has the greatest number of 
rainy days, and has June as a rival for greatest rainfall. The severest 

11 



drouths of this region are the result of persistent winds from points 
between west and south of west. These winds, after passing the Rocky 
Mountains and losing their moisture in Arizona and New Mexico gain 
no moisture to restore what they have lost and reach this region with 
a hydrometric condition below saturation, so that a rain is impossible 
without a change of wind. 

MARKETS. 

There is no fruit producing State in the entire Union that has bet- 
ter markets and market facilities than has Indiana. Being in the very 
center of population, with large cities on the north, south, east and 
west, with thousands of miles of railroads and electric trolley lines, 
which will in a very short time put every town, village and almost 
every farm in touch with the great distributing points the question of 
markets is hardly of enough importance to need mention. Even in the 
extreme southern part of the State berries are now loaded in the even- 
ing and reach Chicago in time for the early market the following day. 
The river counties ship by way of the Ohio river to Cincinnati, Louis- 
ville and points south; the central portion finds outlet in any and all 
directions and the northern counties have been long called the garden 
of Chicago. 

There is an increasing demand for thousands of bushels of fruit in 
our own manufacturing, mining and quarry towns and cities, where 
better prices can always be obtained than in the largest cities, and, 
until this demand is fully supplied it is not worth our while to seek 
markets outside the State. The only concern the commercial grower 
need take is to build up and supply satisfactorily his nearest market. 

When we realize that Indiana imported about f 5,000,000 worth of 
fruits last year we find what a home market we have. After the de- 
mands of this market have been met we are so located that the mar- 
kets of the world are ours and no State can excel us in certain kinds 
of fruit. 

12 



STATE AND LOCAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETIES. 

The subject of horticulture is deemed of such importance in Indiana 
that for forty-three years it has had a State Horticultural Society and 
receives regular aid from the State Legislature to carry on its work. 
The society issues annually a nicely bound book, giving to those wJio 
desire it all the information along horticultural lines that it gathers 
from year to year. Any person may become a member of this society 
who is interested in its workings, by paying a small annual member- 
ship fee. This society holds two regular meetings each year, known as 
the mid-winter and mid-summer meetings. The former is held at the 
State capital, where officers are elected and all routine business trans 
acted in addition to quite a number of lectures given by the leading 
horticulturists of America. The mid-summer meetings are held around 
over the State by invitation of the local societies. These affairs are of 
a social nature and very enjoyable indeed. Here also a number of 
lectures are given and topics of local interest discussed. 

In addition to this work the State now owns and is operating an 
experimental orchard, where experiments of an}' kind deemed advan- 
tageous may be carried on by experts. At present the orchardist is 
trying, by cross-fertilizing, in-breeding and other scientific mchods to 
produce an apple as luscious as the Grimes, as prolific as the Ben 
Davis, as good a keeper as the Jennep, and as hardy as a Russian. 
This kind of work has not been taken up by any other State, and is 
sure to redound to the credit of Indiana and the prosperity of the 
apple growers. In almost every county where there is a special horti- 
cultural interest there are local societies which are experimenting with 
local conditions and problems, and by working all together present 
fruit growing is not a leap in the dark, but a fair, open business propo- 
sition. The novice or commercial grower seeking fruit lands can go 
into any county of this State, make his investment, and from his neigh- 
bors and local society gain all the information and knowledge he needs 
as to profitable varieties, time to plant, cultivate, best markets, and 

13 



if he is wise enough to learn from the mistakes as well as successes 
of those who have gone before, there is no more danger of going wrong 
than in any mercantile or manufacturing business, or in fact any other 
business venture. 

The State society has now an annual appropriation of fl,500 with 
which to carry on the work now begun and to go out into new fields of 
research or investigation. 

INDIANA AS A HOME FOR FRUIT GROWERS. 

There are hundreds of men and women who are having to earn their 
own living in our crowded shops, factories, in dark, dangerous mines, 
and many other uncongenial and unhealthy occupations who have some 
capital to invest in a home and business if they only knew just where 
to go. It is to this very class of people that this is addressed. This 
may be a broad assertion, but there is no place on this "mundane 
sphere" where a dollar will purchase more of all that goes to make up 
the sum total of human happiness than in Indiana. No where that 
lands can be bought so cheap with the same productive capacity. No 
where that fierce labor competition is less rampant and markets 
nearer. 

The laboring man and the home seeker who comes to this State, or 
the one who lives and toils in its manufactories or mines, herded in 
unhygenic dwellings in her cities may go into any one of her fruit 
counties, buy him a little home of even but a few acres, and in a short 
time have for himself and family a veritable garden of Eden with 
scarcely a serpent to disturb its serenity. No soil will respond more 
quickly to generous treatment, no place where the winds blow more 
kindly, and no spot where God's sunshine is more freely given. These 
fruit farms will yield wheat, corn and truck enough to feed the hus- 
bandman and any flocks and herds he finds necessary for the support 
and happiness of the family, while the fruits of any and all kinds lend 
a luxury to his daily food that the crowned heads of Europe might well 

14 



envy, and the surplus, or what is intended for a money crop, can be 
cashed right at his door and the proceeds put in bank. His neighbors 
are kindly, genial, independent tillers of the soil, well fed, comfortably 
clothed, landed gentlemen, who can not be thrown out of house and 
home at the whim of any man, who owes no allegiance to the walking 
delegate, is not affected directly by any strike, and who can not be 
driven to the polls and voted like so many cattle. His children here 
have the "inalienable right" to a life lived in "the open," near to na- 
ture, where they can expand and grow into such citizens as are the 
strength and bulwark of the Nation. Indiana has a common school 
system second to none and her compulsory education law has driven 
out gross ignorance and will be the means of giving to the State a 
class of well educated, self-supporting citizens. 

A comfortable country church is to be found in reach of any one 
who is desirous of attending divine services, and any fruit grower can 
reach these or his nearest town in most instances over good roads, and 
many instances over very fine pikes. Trolley lines are making a net- 
work over the State, the telephone will soon be within the reach of all, 
and in many counties now every one gets his or her own mail delivered 
daily. What more can mortal ask and what more does he need than 
can be gotten in Indiana fruit counties in the way of health, happiness 
and wealth, if he only has the foresight to reach out and grasp what 
is offered him. 

To prove that Indiana is a State of homes we quote the following: 
"Of the farms of the State more than one-half are operated by the 
owner who lives upon the farms; 95 per cent, are tilled by white 
farmers, and only 5 per cent, by colored. There are in the State 1,796 
farms under three acres, 71,055 betAveen 50 and 100 acres, and 225 of 
1,000 or more acres. The census bureau shows that there was an in- 
crease in the number of farms from 1890 to 1900 of 23,730. This might 
be accounted for by reduction in the size of farms, but this is true only 
in a small part for the farms averaged only five acres less in 1900 than 

15 



in 1800. The report further shows that the total farm acreage was 
1,257,107 greater than ever before. The acres of unimproved farm land 
or lauds under cultivation increased in the same time 1,578,876 acres. 
The total value of increase in farm property in the same ten years was 
1100,293,684 and the increase in farm products for the same period was 
$109,690,034. The State has still 5,000,000 acres of unimproved land 
that is to be bought at a comparatively low T figure. Truly what Indiana 
needs is for about 1,000,000 of her citizens who are now living cramped, 
distorted, half-starved existences in her cities to go out on these broad 
acres, gaining for themselves full, natural lives and help feed those of 
her own less fortunate ones as well as the starving millions abroad. 

WHrVT PURDUE IS DOING FOR HORTICULTURE. 

Among the various forces which are at work in this State, having 
for their object the development of a taste for and the dissemination 
of horticultural information perhaps none is more potent for good to 
the State at large than those found at Purdue University, an institu- 
tion founded, primarily, for the two-fold purpose of (1) giving instruc- 
tion to the young men and young women of the State along both the 
theoretical and practical lines which have to do with the every-day 
affairs of life, and (2) inculcating a taste for original investigation into 
the many unsolved problems which are constantly confronting the 
practical, everyday business man, and especially the man who lives 
closer to nature in his everyday life than any other — the farmer and 
fruit grower. 

The first of these influences is found in the University proper, and 
the second in the Experiment Station, wdrich was established and is 
maintained exclusively by the general government. - Both of these 
forces are accomplishing great good to the State, not only in bringing 
the younger element especially to a higher plane of living, but by bring- 
ing them into closer relation with nature's laws they are enabled to 
accomplish greater results in various fields of labor. 

16 



After four years of training, during which time these young people 
are taught to think and act for themselves, they go out into their 
various localities and scatter seeds of information, many of which "fall 
upon good ground," the full fruition of which can not be measured, but 
which results in time in the uplifting and betterment of the whole 
community. 

To acquire a thorough knowledge of horticulture, which includes 
not only fruit culture, but vegetable culture, forestry, landscape gar- 
dening and floriculture, it first becomes absolutely necessary to become 
acquainted with the various sciences which have to do with plant 
growth, such as botany, chemistry, etc. The fruit grower or the florist 
who does not possess this knowledge is greatly handicapped — in fact, 
he is simply groping in the dark. He may prune his trees at a certain 
time of year, or he may use a certain brand of fertilizer on his flowers, 
but he does not know why as good results might not be had if done at 
any other time, or whether his fertilizer contains the proper ingre- 
dients in the right proportions to produce the best results. He must 
also understand the relation which plants and insects sustain to each 
other, and be able to distinguish his friends from his enemies. 

All these sciences, and many more which are so closely related to 
them that they can not be separated from them in a well-rounded col- 
lege course, are taught at Purdue University. In the horticultural 
department the student receives instruction concerning the plant as a 
whole, its several parts and their uses; plant foliage, its modifications 
and uses; pollination, its purposes and how effected, and how weed 
migration may be checked; the food of plants, sources and kinds of 
food, and how plants obtain their food; the germination of the seed, 
conditions of germination, changes in germination, and the practical 
lessons they teach; botanical relationships of farm crops, joint action 
of the clovers and their parasites in renewing the nitrogen supply of 
the soil; the diseases of plants and their causes. A little later he is 
taught the principles of plant breeding; propagation in its various 

17 



forms and limitations; pruning and thinning; care and cultivation of 
fruit trees and vines, harvesting, packing, storing and marketing 
fruits; preparation of soil, planting, transplanting and cultivation of 
vegetables; laying out and ornamentation of public and private 
grounds, with special attention to the needs of the rural home; insects, 
their relation to the farmer and fruit grower; description of species, 
their habits and life history, whether injurious or beneficial, rate of 
increase and means of holding them in check. 

Instruction is also given as to the relation of forestry to horticul- 
ture; the work of the forest in forming, improving and fixing the soil; 
the effects of forests upon climate; influence of forests on the evapo- 
ration of moisture from the soil; effects of forests on the water supply 
of springs, creeks and rivers, etc. All of which play a very important 
part in the practical horticulture of the State. 

In addition to the instruction given to students as outlined in the 
foregoing paragraphs, and the bulletins which are published as the 
result of investigations by the instructors, which reach about 25,000 
of the farmers of our State, hundreds of questions relating to kindred 
topics are answered every year by private letters. Thus the whole 
University is brought into vital relation with those departments of the 
world's work which stand for better, happier, and more contented citi- 
zenship. 

WASHINGTON COUNTS. 

Old rock-ribbed Washington is the second in importance as an apple 
growing county of the State. It has the rough or rolling surface com- 
mon to all the southern counties, but very little actual waste land. In 
fact the hilly, rough portion can be made much more profitable than 
the rich bottom corn lands or wheat fields. There are in this county 
329,226 acres, upon which are now growing 265,220 apple and 32,939 
pear trees, as well as a large number of cherry, plum, peach and other 
less important fruits. Washington county is the original home of the 

18 



Fleenor peach, which is one of the finest commercial peaches grown and 
has brought into this county thousands of dollars. In 18. . an emi- 
grant from South Carolina settled here, bringing with him and planting- 
some peach seeds from which came the peach which was called Fleenor. 
It is still to be found here, perfectly pure as it comes true from seed 
if planted from seedling trees and is often confounded with the "White 
Heath." 

Because of its strong red clay limestone soil, apples and pears color 
up more highly than in almost any other county, and are famous 
lookers and keepers. 

The Ren Davis is a favorite commercial apple, but our growers are 
not so wedded to it but they grow in great quantities other and better 
varieties. There are about 100,000 acres in this county of as fine tree 
fruit land as can be found in the whole world, and much of it can be 
bought for from $5.00 to $40.00 per acre. Fruit growing is not in any 
sense an experiment in this county, but an assured business proposi- 
tion. The county has a number of miles of fine gravel roads right 
through the best fruit section, every farmer gets his free rural mail 
delivery and the country telephone system is very complete. This is 
an excellent small fruit country and the output is hundreds of gallons 
per year, but no definite figures could be obtained to substantiate the 
fact. This county also has quite an area where the persimmon and 
pawpaw are indigenous. These fruits from coming spontaneous and 
costing nothing have not been considered in a commercial way until 
the last few years, since which time they have been in great demand 
locally and many dollars' worth have been shipped to market. 

FLOYD COUNTY. 

Floyd county is in the southern part of the State on the Ohio river. 
While it is one of the smallest counties it ranks near the front as a 
small fruit section. Especially is it famous for its strawberries. Its 

19 



surface is very rolling, but its hill tops are excellent for tree fruits and 
its hillsides for small fruits. Strawberries have yielded as high as 
3,000 gallons per acre and during the busy season the output is seven 
and eight carloads per day. 

The land values vary much, but lands can be bought from $5 to $50 
per acre, according to location and the outlook and possibilities of this 
county need but to be understood to be appreciated. 

ORANGE COUNTY. 

Up to this time there has been very little fruit grown in Orange 
county for commercial purposes. The people now appear to begin to 
realize the importance of fruit growing, and in the past year there have 
been several commercial orchards planted. There are 256,000 acres of 
land in Orange county and it is thought that more than half of this 
land would make good orchard land. The southern part of the county 
is hilly with quite an area of level land on top of some of the hills. 
There appears to be some peculiarity in the soil of the hillsides and 
hilltops that ripens an apple to a higher degree of perfection than is 
attained anywhere else in the same latitude. 

This class of unimproved land can be bought very cheaply, much of 
it from f 5 to $15 per acre. Some of it is well located with reference to 
gravel roads. One example is that of a 100-acre tract that can be 
bought for $400, which is said to be fine orchard land. 

Small fruits do well; in fact, anything in the fruit line that will 
grow in this latitude. The trouble has been that the farmers plant an 
orchard and then leave it to "root hog or die." Not 3 per cent, of our 
farmers cultivate or spray their orchards, seeming satisfied with 
enough fruit for family purposes. 

What is needed is to get some up-to-date, practical fruit growers to 
locate and plant some of these lands in fruit. The result of their labor 
would spread like an infectious disease, and permeate the whole coun- 

20 



try. If something could be done to get the industry properly started 
southern Indiana is destined to become one of the greatest fruit sec- 
tions in the country. 

George W. Mcintosh, of Rego, and James A. Gillum, of Paoli, are 
probably the most successful fruit growers in the State. 

ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

St. Joseph, one of the northern tier of counties, has an area of 
318,080 acres. The soil is diversified, ranging from the muck lands of 
the Kankakee valley to a heavy clay loam of the high lands; the eleva- 
tion is from 700 to 900 feet above sea level. 

There is a valley of from three to four miles in width and from one 
hundred to one hundred fifty feet deep across the county from east 
to west, and a similar one intersects this from the north. Through 
these valleys flow the St. Joseph and Kankakee rivers. The land on 
the south and west of these river basins rises very abruptly while to 
the north and east the ascent is more gradual. Numerous small water- 
courses give excellent drainage. This highland constitutes fully four- 
lifths of the area of the county and is exceptionally well adapted to 
fruit growing, tree fruit doing exceptionally well throughout the 
county. 

In common with many other communities in our State the land 
owners are not awake to the possibilities of their soil, and but few 
commercial orchards have been planted. The largest is one of thirty 
acres, mostly apple, in the eastern part of the county, twelve acres of 
which is just coming into bearing and the balance but recently planted. 
There are a few others of from five to ten acres. Pears succeed equally 
as well as apples. In 1903, when pears were almost a total failure 
throughout the State, H. H. Swaim harvested from ten-year-old Kiefer 
trees, which have bore six successive crops, an average of four and 
one-quarter bushels per tree, some of the best trees yielding seven and 

. 21 



one-half bushels. These sold in the local market at $1.50 per bushel, 
and no crop from these trees has sold for less than $1.00 per bushel. 

Grapes and small fruits do equally as well as the tree fruits and are 
grown quite extensively in the vicinity of South Bend. Grapes not 
uncommonly yield five to six tons per acre. C. P. Bradley one season 
harvested thirty-six and one-half tons from five acres. Other promi- 
nent fruit growers are: T. J. Coffin. Jacob Betz, Leonidas Norris, A. 
Mohn, U. R. Rockhill and H. H. Swaim. 

Of small fruits strawberries are most extensively grown and yield 
enormous crops of the finest quality of fruit. George F. Newton has 
the credit of the largest crop ever grown in the county, with a yield of 
8,400 quarts per acre, the net receipts of this acre being $325.00. The 
variety grown was Crescent Seedling pollenized with Captaub Jack and 
grown in matted rows heavily mulched and without irrigation. H. H. 
Swaim holds the record for the largest single picking of strawberries 
in the county, with 1,680 quarts from one acre. South Bend, with its 
40,000 population, is an excellent fruit market. 

The shipping facilities of the county are unequaled in the State. 
The following is a list of railroads in the county: L. S. & M. S., Chicago 
& Grand Trunk, Michigan Central, Vandalia, Baltimore & Ohio, Lake 
Erie & Western, Wabash, Indiana, Illinois & Iowa, with a branch to 
Lake Michigan at Benton Harbor. 

LAWRENCE COUNTY. 

The possibilities of Lawrence county as an apple county have been 
demonstrated to the world by J. A. Benton. In 1887 Mr. Benton planted 
an apple orchard of twenty-five acres which came into bearing in 1895, 
giving a paying crop that year and every year since. His largest sale 
during this period was 1,400 barrels, besides windfalls; his most profit- 
able yield per acre was $88.00. To do this has meant work in the way 
of cultivation, spraying and in fact every detail necessary to success 

22 



has been well looked after. Mr. Benton won quite a number of pre- 
miums at the Paris, France, Exposition on his apples, as well as pre- 
miums and medals at the Pan-Anierican Exposition. Lawrence is one of 
the interior counties with a gently rolling surface, with more than 
100,000 acres of land that will produce bountiful and profitable crops 
of apples and can be bought for $5 to $50 per acre. 

BROWN COUNTY. 

Brown is one of the interior counties of the State. Its surface is 
very hilly and almost mountainous. It contains 204,800 acres. About 
one-fifth of these acres only are rich bottom and table lands that yield 
fair profits in ordinary farm crops. This county is crossed by several 
ridges which divide it into sections and it is on these ridges that we 
find the orchards which even now are attracting wide attention and 
will some day make this county famous as a fruit section. It now has 
growing over 100,000 apple trees, 70,000 peach trees, as well as large 
numbers of pear, plum and other tree fruits. There is quite a large 
number of orchards of from 100 to 1,500 trees just coming into bearing, 
but as the apple orchard of William W T altman and what is known as 
the Freeman peach orchard are the largest we will use them as ex- 
amples of what has been and can be done. 

We quote the following from Mr. Waltman: "My orchard has in it 
5,000 apple trees, most of which are Ben Davis, that have been planted 
from eighteen months to six years, on a ridge 1,100 feet above sea level. 
This orchard covers 100 acres and 1 have a crop about every other year, 
which gives me over $80.00 per acre when it bears. The original growth 
was walnut, beech, hickory, sugar maple and such like trees, very large 
and fine. I bought the farm for the timber, paying |4.00 per acre for 
it, and I would hesitate a long while before I would take $100.00 an 
acre for any acre in orchard. Fruit trees of all kinds do well on my 
farm, but nothing brings in the money like Ben Davis apples." 

23 



The Freeman peach orchard is on an adjoining farm to the Waltman 
apple orchard, and covers 100 acres in all, eighty acres of which is in 
peaches. Six thousand trees were set in 1893, 4,000 in 1894, 2,500 in 
1895. The best crops gathered were in 1899 and 1901. The first year 
named gave a crop, of 2,500 bushels, which sold for f 1,400.00; the last 
one 9,033 bushels, which brought $6,250.00. The expense of marketing 
was about half the above amounts. On this same farm, in bearing, are 
2,000 pear, 100 plum, 1,000 apple, 150 cherry trees and quite a vineyard. 
The original cost of this land was |4.20 per acre, all the land in timber. 
The cost of clearing the land, cultivating and setting the trees was 
|17.00 per acre, and is worth on the market near $100.00 per acre at 
the present, and there are thousands of acres in this county that can 
be made to do just as well with the same amount of brain and energy 
expended thereon. 

HARRISON COUNTY. 

Harrison is one of the river counties, being bordered on the south, 
southeast and southwest by the Ohio river. It contains 305,074 acres, 
much of which is supposed to be among the finest fruit land of the 
State. There is now growing in this county over 250,000 apple trees, 
which gives it the lead of all the counties of Indiana as an apple county. 
When growers feel the importance of spraying, and learn to success- 
fully fight fungus and other fruit tree diseases, she can possibly grow 
and market apples cheaper than almost any other section. This country 
is quite rolling, especially the river townships, which are hilly, and it is 
on these highest hills where the finest orchards grow and fruit most 
regularly. 

Mr. Samuel Wolf last year gathered 1,200 barrels of apples from 
ten acres of thirteen-year-old trees. 

John Cunningham has an apple orchard of Ben Davis apples fifteen 
years old that brought him in 1900, $1,400; in 1901, $1,200; and in 1902, 
which was a very bad year for apples, $900.00. The number of bushels 

24 



could not be ascertained. There are in the county near 15,000 acres of 
most excellent fruit lands that can be bought for from $10.00 to |20.00 
per acre. 

CLARK COUNTY. 

Clark county is one of the largest in the State, containing 235,516 
acres, and is situated on the Ohio river. THe surface is quite diversified 
as well as its soil. It contains many acres of rich bottom corn lands, 
acres of valuable timber lands yet unculled, but it will be known in the 
future as a great horticultural section. The soil and situation fit it for 
any kind of fruit that will grow in this latitude. Its apple,peach and 
plum crops will justify any one in the embarking in the growing of 
either on a commercial scale, and will give handsome returns on money 
invested in their production. 

The growing of fruit trees has not been so extensive in the past as 
it is likely to be in the future, and we have only family orchards, or at 
least small commercial ones to judge from. In either instance no rec- 
ords have been kept, but suffice it to say that whenever Clark county 
tree fruits have been put on the market they have brought the very 
best price on account of size, color, flavor and keeping quality. Apple 
and peach lands can be bought for from f 5.00 to $25.00 per acre. 

It is in the growing of small fruits — the berries — that this county 
takes first rank. The little city of Borden, in Wood township, is the 
main shipping point, and the bulk of the fruit goes north on the Monon 
railroad, reaching Chicago and intervening points in prime condition. 
A recently organized Fruit Growers' Corporation will supply the only 
thing necessary to make this one of the most popular berry sections 
in the State- — and that is co-operation among growers in demanding 
transportation rates and putting an agent in the field to look after 
markets. 

A recent visit to Wood township brought to light many object les- 
sons that will be of great value to investors, on either a large or small 

25 



scale. Strawberries rank first in importance and many carloads are 
shipped out each day during the busy season. Good lands that can be 
easily fitted for berry growing can be bought right in the berry district 
for |20.00 to $50.00 per acre, while areas ready to plant or already 
planted can be bought for $100.00 to $150.00 per acre. It is not infre- 
quent for growers to be offered the above prices for the fruit alone on 
the acres, the buyer to pick and market same. J. J. Dietrich reports 
that in 1900 he, from one acre of black raspberries, picked 837 gallons, 
which netted him $107.50. The same acre in 1901 yielded 1,010 gallons, 
for which he received net $241.77. The same acre in 1902, with the addi- 
tion of one-half acre in bearing for the first time, gave 987 gallons, for 
which he received $224.83. One acre of strawberries in 1902 yielded 1,281 
gallons, which netted $304.95. Mr. Dietrich savs these figures mean 
after all expenses are paid incident to the crop after ripening began. 

R. M. Borders in the same district in 1901 sold from one and one- 
half acres 2,550 gallons of strawberries, for which he received $225.25. 
The same field in 1902 netted him $660.10, but the number of gallons is 
not given. Two Borders brothers went in debt $2,000.00 for land, sup- 
ported their families on it, paid taxes and interest and in four years 
paid for the land. This was largely, if not entirely done, with berry 
crops. W. K. Jackson, in 1897 picked 1,210 gallons of strawberries 
from three-fourths of an acre' which sold net for $325.50. The same 
area in 1898 gave 2,000 gallons which netted $245.50. In 1901 one and 
one-fourth acres yielded 2,350 gallons, netting $481.00. 

John. Coats, in 1902, picked from one acre of strawberries 2,478 gal- 
lons; net proceeds, $640.00. In 1903 two acres of blackberries gave a 
net sum of $260.00. Page Callahan netted $460.00 from one acre of 
strawberries, and while he has since done as well he has never broken 
the record. Lafe Scott realized $280.00 from one acre of strawberries. 
G. W. Martin is probably the largest grower, having out about twelve 
acres. 

26 



At the present there are about 1,000 acres of strawberries growing 
within six miles square, which is an increase over former years, and 
there has been an average of eighty carloads shipped from Borden 
alone for the last ten years. Conservative growers estimate that there 
are at least 5,000 acres of berry land in this county that can be made 
to produce as well as the ones mentioned. 

This county is the pioneer and has had almost a monopoly of the 
persimmon trade in the past. This fruit is indigenous to many counties 
of the State, but has not figured to any extent in city markets. It has 
many variations in time of ripening, size, flavor and other minor points. 
One Logan. Martin became interested in a tree growing wild on his farm 
which produced fruit almost seedless. He began to bud, graft, culti- 
vate and otherwise improve this wild fruit, the result of which is a fine, 
large fruit, almost seedless, and for which there is a great demand at 
very profitable figures. Mr. Martin's oldest improved tree is now 
twenty years old. In 1903 it yielded fifty crates. 

There are about 2,000 trees in this immediate vicinity, which are all 
young, but made an average profit of $5.00 per tree last year. These 
trees begin to bear at three years and five-year-old trees last year 
averaged three gallons of fruit to the tree. 

There are thousands of acres of Clark county land particularly 
suited to the persimmon and the market is never likely to be glutted 
with them, as they can be shipped at any time from September until 
March without being put in cold storage. 

MONROE COUNTY. 

Monroe is one of the interior counties of the State and has quite a 
diversified surface. This county is known best as the home of the State 
University, located at Bloomington. Her building stone is second to 
none. Her soil is adapted to the growing of grasses, cereals and fruits, 
as has been proven in the past. This county is included in what will 

27 



soon be known as the great apple or tree fruit belt. Of her 268,480 
acres there are nearly 70,000 acres that are unimproved and are almost 
unexcelled as apple lands. These high, rolling, cheap acres so fitted for 
apples especially, are sure to attract capital and will be appreciated 
by investors as they have not been by past and present owners. These 
hilly, unimproved lands have just the soil and location needed for fruit 
culture and can be bought in tracts of but a few acres up* to 1,000 or 
even 1,500 from $5.00 to $40.00 per acre, according to location. The 
near-sightedness and indifference of the population is the only reason 
that these hillsides and summits are not one solid orchard of bearing- 
apple trees. 

The wide awake farmer, the small orchardist and the amateur fruit 
grower have demonstrated to the world what can be done in this 
county. It is well known at the State Fair and Horticultural Society 
that it takes something extra to beat Monroe county and it is rarely 
done. 

All the tree fruits, as well as grapes, do well. Fred Fess finds 
Moore's early grape quite a money maker, and has grown the Niagara 
grape to weigh from one to one and one-quarter pounds per bunch. His 
Kiefer pear trees, planted out in 1892 averaged to the tree in 1899, 
seven bushels; in 1900, eight bushels; in 1901, seven and one-half 
bushels, and in 1902, six and one-half bushels. Another grower realized 
an average of eight bushels of Ben Davis and Wine Sap apples from 
ten-year-old trees. In fact all the leading varities do well, producing 
quite regularly as fine fruit as can be found anywhere. 

The small fruits do well in this county, but from lack of organiza- 
tion of fruit interests as well as lack of past records kept, it was hard 
to verify general ideas and knowledge of this coming fruit county. 

Frank Rose, a grower of small fruits near Bloomington, has realized 
a net profit of $265.00 from one acre of Bubach strawberries, and 
$235.00 per acre from Columbian raspberries. There are hundreds of 

' 28 



acres near Bloomington that can be bought fairly cheap that will do 
this under ordinary cultivation, and its possibilities under high cultiva- 
tion are almost limitless. 

In looking the State over one finds here and there an orchard or 
Adneyard that is highly profitable, but owing to the high price of lands 
one would not speak of them as fruit sections, especially when farms 
can be bought so very cheaply in adjoining counties that can be made 
produce just as fine fruit with the same labor. 

The orchard of W. B, Flick, of Marion county, is one of these. Mr. 
Flick's orchard of sixteen acres, was planted in 1873. It began bearing 
in about six years and has given a good crop almost every year since. 
His largest sale for any year during that time was f 2,250.00 from a 
little more than ten acres, and even with the high value placed on his 
farm his orchard is highly remunerative. 

T. J. Newby, of Carthage, has one of the model farms of the State. 
His land is very fertile and high priced yet he finds that his orchard is 
his most profitable farm crop. He grows many kinds of fruit, yet he 
says that the apple is king. His six-acre apple orchard gave in 1895, 
1,000 bushels from about 225 trees. In 1901 he again gathered over 
1,000 bushels, for which he received $2.40 per barrel in the orchard. 
Mr. Newby was also a winner of premiums and medals on fruits at both 
Paris and Pan-American Expositions. 

D. E. Hoffman, of Winchester, grows Ben Davis apples with profit 
on high-priced lands. One year he sold 2,500 bushels of this variety 
for $1,000.00 in the orchard. His largest sale was $3,000.00 for the 
crop from forty acres, all Ben Davis. 

C. P. Bradley, of South Bend, is very enthusiastic over grape grow- 
ing in St. Joseph county. He says that three-fourths of the county can 
be made produce grapes profitably and that he is doing it every year. 
The early grapes are sold in small baskets at from 5 to 7 cents per 
pound, but the late ones are sold for wine. Mr. Bradley gave no figures 

29 



but simply said that in his locality there was no fruit more profitable 
than grapes. 

William H. Fry, of Greenwood, is a grower of fine grapes which he 
markets direct from the vines, and finds the business very profitable 
indeed. 

P. G. Willis, of Elizabethtown, is possibly the largest grape grower 
in Indiana, having out many acres and making many barrels of wine, 
for which he gets 40 cents per gallon more than California wine brings 
in the open market. 




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